MEIOGENIX - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Investment Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Investment Director in the Life Sciences Department of Bpifrance Investissement
Benoit BARTEAU is Investment Director in the Life Sciences Department of Bpifrance Investissement. Since 2014, he has been involved in a dozen investment deals and current board positions include Dynacure, Alentis, Igyxos, SparingVision and BrainEver.
Prior, he gained experience in various biotech roles, co-discovered a vaccine candidate, developed an antibody production service.
He holds an MSc in Biotechnology Engineering from the University of Technology of Compiègne (UTC), a PhD in immunology from the University of Nantes and an executive Master in Finance from the Sorbonne Business School.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Scientific Advisor
- CNRS Research Director
Dr Alain Nicolas (CNRS Research Director) is a group leader in the Department of "Dynamics of genetic information: fundamental basis and Cancer" (Institut Curie). During his post-doc in the laboratory of J. Szostak, (Harvard Medical School), he identified the first initiation site of meiotic recombination in the yeast S. cerevisiae. His group pursued the molecular analysis of the mechanisms and the control of the initiation of meiotic recombination in yeast and extended his interest into the fields of replication, DNA repair, genome instability, genomics and human genetics.
Job Titles:
- CTO
- Member of the Leadership Team
Dr. Gaganpreet Sidhu boasts a diverse and extensive background in the field of DNA recombination. She earned her PhD from Cornell University and was a Postdoc Fellow at Columbia University. Her expertise spans both somatic and meiotic recombination, in various plant and animal species including wheat, maize, Xenopus and humans. Dr. Sidhu serves as an editor for the special issue of Frontiers in Genetics focusing on the exploration of meiotic recombination in plants. Additionally, she has been instrumental in organizing virtual international conferences on the topic in collaboration with FASEB, bringing together experts from around the world to share their knowledge and insights.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Managing Director of VIB BV
Dr. Johan Cardoen serves as Managing Director of VIB BV (Flanders Institute for Biotechnology). Dr. Cardoen is responsible a.o. for technology transfer and establishing spin-off companies. He served as Chief Executive Officer of CropDesign N.V. since January 1, 2005. Dr. Cardoen joined CropDesign as Vice President Technology Alliances & IP in July 1999 and also served as its Vice President - Business Development since 2001. He developed a dual-track exit strategy (IPO-trade sale) resulting in a successful acquisition of CropDesign by BASF Plant Science and concluded a number of significant business deals. Dr. Cardoen served as Technology Acquisition Manager and Business Development Manager of Plant Genetic Systems (PGS) from 1988 to July 1999. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Leuven, Belgium in 1987.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Scientific Advisor
- Professor of Plant Genetics
- Professor of Plant Genetics and Plant Breeding at Cornell University
Dr. Wojtek P. Pawlowski is a Professor of Plant Genetics and Plant Breeding at Cornell University. He is also Faculty Fellow of Cornell Institute for Food Systems. He received his PhD from University of Minnesota and did a postdoc at the University of California at Berkeley. His lab uses molecular and computational biology tools to study meiotic recombination in plants, primarily maize.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Founder and Managing Director of Genoa Ventures
Jenny is the Founder and Managing Director of Genoa Ventures, where she leverages her unique toolkit of genetics domain expertise, strategic business acumen, and venture investing to launch and empower the next generation of category-defying companies at the convergence of biology and technology.
With over three decades of innovation and business development experience in agriculture and biotechnology, Mary Beth Miranda has held leadership roles at Syngenta, Novozymes and most recently Brightseed.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Michael joined us in 2013 and is a partner in the Sofinnova Industrial Biotech Strategy. His primary focus is on identifying early-stage deals in Europe and North America with applications…
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board
- System Board Member of the CGIAR
Neal GUTTERSON joined DuPont Pioneer in 2014. In 2017 when DuPont merged with Dow, he was named Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of the combined entity's agriculture division, which was subsequently spun off and renamed Corteva Agriscience. There, he led the integration of three research and development organizations into one, developed the new company's first integrated R&D strategy and oversaw the growth and expansion of its award-winning pipeline. While at Corteva, he championed and brought strategic clarity to the company's efforts to use its expertise, intellectual property and technologies to address challenges facing smallholder farmers globally.
Prior to joining Corteva, Neal held senior roles with Mendel Biotechnology, rising from Vice President, R&D, to President and Chief Executive Officer. Throughout his career, he has used his scientific expertise and knowledge of organizational design and innovation principles to forge collaborations with organizations of all sizes and stages of maturity. He also spent six years on the Board of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), along with a number of other associations. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry.
Neal is currently System Board member of the CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future, and Partner and CTO at Radicle Growth, an early stage sustainable ag and food venture firm.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Leadership Team
Ricardo Garcia de Alba is a seasoned strategic leader that comes to Meiogenix after serving 15 years at Corteva Agriscience, where he held multiple leadership positions in the company's Seed and Crop Protection businesses.
Most recently, he led the company's Global Row Crop Herbicide and Nitrogen Management Portfolio, overseeing weed management responsibilities for the Enlist™ System and the company's corn, soybean, cotton, and sugarcane business.
His background also includes serving in several executive business development, engineering, and sales and marketing roles for Dupont, Procter and Gamble and other leading companies across the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, the U.K. and Spain.
Garcia de Alba is passionate about community building, has served in different Ag Industry & Nonprofit Boards in Latin America and the U.S., including the World Economic Forum's New Vision for Agriculture Program in Mexico, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis and the Indiana Latino Institute among others.
Ricardo is an avid beekeeper and is also very enthusiastic about teaching and promoting education, having done so in different Institutions and Universities in Mexico, Barcelona and Boston.
Job Titles:
- CFO
- Member of the Leadership Team
Virginie Alexanian - CFO After 10 years as an auditor at Deloitte serving mainly pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, she joined Cellectis as a deputy CFO after the Nasdaq IPO. Virginie has now developed her own practice, serving both private and public biotech companies.